Terminal 3 (Level 1-Arrival Hall) - *Every $30 spent in a single receipt entitles you to 2 free rides. Valid for redemption with same day receipt only. (First come First serve while token last).

Terminal 3 (Basement 2) - Unlimited Free rides

Denver already got his height measured and he passed the minimal requirement of 1.3m for the 12 metres (4 storey high) slide. ^_^ The lower slide which is about 1 and a half storey high only requires a mimimal height of 1.1 metres. The maximum entry height for both slides must not taller than 2 metres.

Denver didn't 'dare' to try the taller slide on his first trial.. but he tried a few times on the shorter one. Best of all, it's FREE! He only needs to re-queue everytime he finishes his slides.

Another good thing is if the children are not ready to take the taller slide this time round, the tokens can always be kept and use on your next visit. According to the staff at the counter, there is no expiry on the tokens. So, we reserved it on our 2nd visit to T3. ^_^

After gaining more confidence on the lower slide, Denver is READY to go for the Tallest Slide @ T3. ^_^ He'll be joining Daddy! Cheers!

Simple steps : Queue up for your turn, insert the token, push the door to enter, position yourself safely on the slide and down you go. :)

Once you reached the bottom, exit quickly and there is a flight of stairs at the side to go back up to the lower slide. ^_^

Fun for Denver... but Gladys is protesting that she couldn't join in as she didn't meet the minimum height of 110m for the shorter slide. Fear not, there are other activities to keep our little girl occupied! Kid's corner with cartoon programs from CN, woodblock rubbing, mini playground and Zone X is just nearby!

While Denver is busy sliding, Gladys is enjoying herself too.

Zone-X - Common play area for adult and children. Just nice for the whole family to enjoy.

Before heading back home, don't forget to pop by for some kiddy car rides! The Kid’s Fun Ride is located at Terminal 3, Carpark 3A (Basement 2), and opened from 11.00am to 10.00pm daily. Charges for the various rides range from $3 to $8. Depending on the whether you are taking the bigger or smaller cars.

"Aspiring little drivers can head down to Changi Airport for a day of fun and thrills, as they get to zip around a racetrack in the dream car of their choice!

A huge part of Carpark 3A at Changi’s Terminal 3 has been transformed into a colourful amusement paradise for fun kiddy rides, comprising an exciting assortment of electronic toy vehicles including giant inflatable animal cars, mini luxury sedans, convertibles, jeeps, as well as F1 race cars.

The latest addition to the list of family and kid friendly facilities at Changi Airport, the Kid’s Fun Ride at Terminal 3 offers three different types of kiddy rides with circuits of varying levels of difficulty, to cater to toddlers from as young as two years old, to older kids and even parents. With the circuits area cheerfully decorated with inflatable palm trees, cartoon animal figurines, life-size dollies and even realistic backdrops of Singapore’s skyline, the Kid’s Fun Ride promises children an exciting and entertaining time as they get to be the real masters of the road for once. Aspiring Schumachers will have the opportunity to zip around F1 circuits in motorised race cars, while little girls can choose to cruise along in pink mini Beetles or cute little scooters.

Toddlers too young to ride on their own can hop onto adorable giant animal inflatable cars with their parents. With all the electronic toy vehicles programmed for safe riding, parents can be assured that their kids will have a safe and fun time at the rides. "

The different choices of cars and rides looked tempting and Gladys can't wait to take the ride on the circuit!

So how did she fare on her first test drive? :)

Located within the same area, there is also Carboot sale-cum-flea market on the 3rd weekend of every month! (Carpark 3A - Section 1, Basement 2). We happened to be there at the right time and part of the carpark has been reserved where vendors will display their items for sale. There are clothing, handphone accessories, little toys, jewelries, home decor etc.

Of course not to forget the various restaurants located @ T3 and families can consider spending the evening here for a series of dining, shopping and fun experience.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

5th June - Day 5. YES! We are finally into our FINAL Day in Shantou! Our return flight is in the afternoon hence we were able to wake up slightly later than usual. It started to drizzle again and there's nothing much to do in the morning only to pack and check our luggages. We lazed around in our hotel room watching cartoons and check-out at the destinated time.

We board on the tour bus which send us to the Airport, dropping us off at the same spot they picked us up 5 days ago. Our guide and driver will be taking a 4 hours drive back to Xiamen while we are on our flight back home.

We had a quick bite at the airport before boarding since we'll only be arriving in Singapore in the evening. Bought a Coca Cola can drink with World Cup 2010 design on it. Cool!

Gosh.. I looked tired.. did everyone look fatter? After eating so much food for so many days!? It has been a rather smooth-sailing (except for the rainy weather) trip and mission accomplished. Good-Bye Shantou!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

4th June - Day 4. Our 2nd last day into our Shantou Trip. Feeling really FAT already... accumulating the amount of food that I have stuffed myself so far... starting to get tired of eating. :( Breakfast is at a resturant within the hotel and I realized I am picking up lesser food to eat even though the table is full of spread.

After breakfast, its packing up and checking out of the hotel again. We'll be travelling back to Shantou to rest for tonight before leaving for the airport tomorrow. Changing hotel everyday can be quite tiring... considering the fact that Hubby has been pushing the beds together and I have been unpacking and packing the luggage every time we check-in to a new room. Then again, the children enjoyed it! They get to go to different 'House' everyday.

Photo takings at the Hotel Lobby.

We are on the road again. Today is SUNNY! Finally there is some sunshine after 2 days of rainy weather. It's a miracle I didn't get a cold! Starting to get 'sick' with the rain already. :) Did I mention how the children are spending their time on the tour bus? Denver and his cousins will be busy engaging in PSP games while Gladys will be either busy singing, drinking, eating or sleeping.

Along the way, we saw many farms.. Many are rearing Goose and we stopped by to have a little peek. Duck is not commonly found in Shantou and hence we will find many goose related dishes instead. First time the children are seeing so many of them...

This is a very big, old house over a hundred year and with 500 hundreds over rooms.. Every corners, setting of the rooms looked pretty much the same. I will definitely be lost and cannot find my way if I were to stay here in the ancient days. :p According to the lady guide, the people differentiate the location by the colours and tile on the flooring and walls. There are many halls and room at the sides and every area have its own colour theme with different patterns of tilings.

Traditional Teochew Opera show and puppet show.

Very old architecture and the other side of the building is badly damaged that no visitors are allowed to enter.

Outside the house, there are a lot of Lychee trees. Hubby and bbil picked a little to try even though its not ripe! Opps.. no picking! Un-ripe lychee doesn't taste good either.

We are back at the same Chinese resturant where we have lunch and dinner on our 1st day. Again, we are being served with 大鱼大肉 and more tea. No surprise!

After lunching, we had a little walk at 中山公园. Statue of 孙中山, a mini zoo, lake, bridges, fake mountains are found within the park.

Finally we are going to a mall for some shopping. First time that I miss shopping so much in a trip being the fact that I am not that much of a shopaholic! Hahaha. But we really haven't been buying much stuff. Not all the things are cheap there but we manage to buy some toys for the kiddos and a wallet for myself.

The children had some time to play at the indoor play area and had some fun time.

After 2-3 hours of shopping, we got back at the hotel - 龙湖宾馆. I happen to see that there is a Beauty Palour within the hotel that offers Hair cut service. It's pretty cheap, 10yuan for kids - i.e. $2 SGD! Quickly ask my hubby and Denver to go down for their hair cut. :D

We are finally into our final 9 course dinner for this trip which I am not looking forward to. At least the Orh Ngee was ok. After dinner, its walking around the streets of Shantou for our final shopping. We only have about 2 hours to walk around before bidding this city farewell.

We bought some snacks and desserts along the way. It is a waste not to taste the food at the road side stalls. :( But after having such a heavy dinner, there is only that much amount of space left for supper.

Our final purchase... Bag, wallets, umbrellas, stickers and thats all we got! Ending Day 4 and we are all packed to go home.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Our tour guide says any lake located at the west side of the city is call 西湖. So, China got a lot of west lake. :p 潮州西湖 is basically a small park and a place where oldies come for their morning exercise.

Today we will be staying at 汇侨大酒店. The hotel doesn't look as grand and there are some renovation works going on too.

The rooms however has a modern setting although it seems kinda small. The only complain I have is probably the toilet flooring which is too slippery. Denver even had a slip and fell in the bath area. :( Other than that, the carpeting and interior looks new and refreshing.

View of Chaozhou city from our hotel room.

Father-in-law's tummy has not been feeling good since morning... probably due to the food we ate yesterday that is causing the consistent diarrhea. Bbil took him to find a doctor but only manage to find a Chinese physician after a long search. On the other hand, the children didn't ate much during lunch and has been indulging on the cup noodles which we brought along with us.

While my in-laws are resting in their room, Bbil's family and us venture out to the streets. It was still drizzling (sigh).... and we walked around to see what we'll find. Hubby had a slip and fell, cutting his knee. (nothing serious luckily).

We finally saw a small fast food shop and walk in to buy more food for the kids. Seems to be pretty cheap too!

It's really scary to cross the roads over here... even with the traffic lights, it doesn't help at all. We are at a junction and the traffic just turns green.... to my surprise, the cars can still drive past us even as we are crossing!!! Lesson of the day - always watch both sides before crossing... even when the traffic is green for the pedestrians! The cars doesn't seem to be keen to give way to us at all. So, we really need to judge well, pick a good chance and cross quickly. The adults also have to hold on tightly to their children. Everytime we need to cross a road, the kiddos will complain... "Not Again!"

We walked all the way back to the hotel to rest. I'm starting to get tired with the rainy weather. Body is aching and my sandals are wet.
Dinner is at another resturant and more food... I'm also feeling really fat as the days passed.. nine course Chinese lunch and dinner everyday.

We signed up for the 潮州夜景 tour in the night. Since we'll probably be stuck around the hotel and there's nothing better much to do. hehhe.
It wasn't raining as heavily but there are still some drizzling. Still, we can do without the brolly. The tour bus took us to 潮州金山大桥 for some night shots while my inlaws rest in the bus.

Earlier in the morning, we went to visit 湘子桥, now we are outside the 古城 and took a walk inside. It looked different in the night compared to the day. The ancient walls are brightly lighted (金碧辉煌）and still looked magnificent.

On top of the city walls...

On the city walls, there are markings to indicate the level of flooding in the past years.

Hubby has a craving to taste the fried chicken from the local KFC. Everytime when we travel overseas, we'll make an attempt to try it. So far Hubby loves the one from Thailand best. Since there are not many KFC outlets, our tour guide took us to a nearby shopping mall near 人民广场.

KFC! One of the fewer outlets we saw in Shantou, Jieyang and Guangzhou so far. Final verdict. Still the one in Singapore taste better. :D

Different menu, different taste. But still as good and it's a different treat.